SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 27, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Foundry Networks Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced that three carriers in Quebec, Canada -- Maskatel, Telephone Drummond and Telephone Guevremont -- have chosen Foundry Networks' NetIron(R) MLX Series of metro routers for the delivery of triple-play services.
As part of the deployment, Maskatel, Telephone Drummond and Telephone Guevremont will collaborate to build a next-generation aggregation network that uses Foundry's IPv4/IPv6/MPLS enabled NetIron MLX Series routers for the delivery of triple-play services over a converged infrastructure. The ability to provide such next-generation services as Voice-over-IP (VoIP), broadband Internet access, IPTV and Video on Demand will allow these providers to offer new revenue generating value-added services to their existing customer base of both residential and business users. While offering the convenience of a single bill to end-users, the services will allow the three providers to realize increased Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) while potentially reducing churn by establishing a stickier end-customer.
High-performance aggregation networks are critical to ensure a high-quality experience to users of next-generation services. By using an MPLS infrastructure for these services, providers can ensure better Quality of Service (QoS) and build higher resiliency into the network. In addition, a common infrastructure can be used for the delivery of multiple services, thus lowering operational and capital costs. The ability to do sub-50 millisecond failure recovery with MPLS Fast Re-Route (FRR) on the NetIron MLX Series allows minimal disruption to traffic being transported through the network.
Foundry's NetIron MLX Series is the industry-leading metro Ethernet router platform for Ethernet, IPv4, IPv6, and MPLS based service deployments. Based on the award-winning architecture, it is purpose-built for bandwidth-intensive and QoS-sensitive applications such as IPTV, Video on Demand and VoIP. The NetIron MLX Series has a switch fabric capacity of 7.68 Tbps and peak processing speed of up to 2 billion packets per second. Its advanced architecture enables deterministic, wire-speed performance to be achieved with very low latency, thereby delivering a superior network experience for broadband users. The 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) ready architecture of the NetIron MLX provides unparalleled investment protection for service providers planning to build a next-generation network.
"Foundry Networks has a proven history in providing high-performance and scalable routing/switching platforms, and is well-recognized for its price-performance leadership," said Philippe Decary, network architect for Maskatel. "After a detailed analysis of different competitor offerings, we found the NetIron MLX Series to be the best platform that met our requirements for building a resilient, high-performance, high-quality, future-proof network."
"We are very pleased that Maskatel and its partners have selected the NetIron MLX Series of metro routers for the delivery of triple-play services over a broadband MPLS infrastructure," said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager for Foundry Networks' High End and Service Provider Systems Business Unit. "Service providers require an advanced, future-proof platform for the delivery of next-generation services, and the NetIron MLX Series delivers this while also providing unmatched performance, scalability, resiliency, and reliability at a fraction of the price of alternative offerings."
About Maskatel, Telephone Drummond and Telephone Guevremont
Based in Quebec Canada, Maskatel is registered as a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) in Canada. Maskatel has been serving the St-Hyacinthe area east of Montreal since 1996. Since then, it has steadily expanded to serve other localities in Quebec and currently serves about 25,000 customers. Telephone Drummond is registered as a CLEC and will start its operations in 2007 to serve the Drummondville area. Telephone Guevremont is registered as a Small ILEC and offers service covering the Ste-Rosalie area (now part of St-Hyacinthe) in Quebec.
About Foundry Networks
Foundry Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY) is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security, and Web traffic management solutions including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4 - 7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, access routers and metro routers. Foundry's 10,000 customers include the world's premier ISPs, metro service providers, and enterprises including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial, and manufacturing companies. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit www.foundrynetworks.com.
The Foundry Networks, Inc. logo is available at http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2756
Foundry Networks and the 'Iron' family of marks are trademarks of Foundry Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.